In monitoring, administration and control systems of molding machines, methods wherein the Internet or a telephone line is used as means for checking the plant operation status and production results of a molding machine in a molding factory from a remote location are known, for example from JP-A-2002-86531.
A molding machine monitoring, adminstration and control system of this kind has a function giving advance notification of production run completion a set time before or set number of shots before the completion of production, and on the basis of this advance notification of production run completion a technician can raise work efficiency by carrying out preparation for the next production run or preparation for production run completion in advance.
However, in accessing a network directly via the Internet there are problems of global address acquisition and security, and in practice it has been difficult to make it possible for anyone to connect and view information easily. To make it possible for anyone to connect and view information easily, the construction of an in-company intranet and Web servers has been necessary. When advance notification of production run completion is provided as it has been in molding machine monitoring, adminstration and control systems of related art, there has been the problem that unless the technician is near the molding machine or near a monitoring/administration/control system inside the molding factory, it has not been possible for the technician to see the advance notification of production run completion. Also, in the checking of the plant operation status and production results of a molding machine from a remote location, there has been the problem that unless a plant operation status checking procedure is carried out from the remote location, the information is not delivered. Furthermore, there has been the problem that when among events occurring at a molding machine an event has arisen of which a technician or a manager must be informed, it is difficult for them to be informed immediately in a remote location.
Accordingly, there has been a need for a molding machine control system which makes it possible to receive advance notifications of predetermined events such as production run completion; to view the plant operation status and production results of molding machines; and to obtain reports of events occurring at molding machines of which a manager or other needs to be informed, all from a remote location.